We just recently got back from our 2 week wedding-moon at Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica. It was amazing. The wedding was perfect, but that review belongs on a wedding forum.. hehe. The resort was perfect, but that review belongs on Trip Advisor (which I will get to for sure). So here I want to say a bit about the diving.
This was our second trip to Jamaica and our first time to Negril. The first time we were in Montego Bay and did some diving there. Now, as you can gather, this trip was primarily about our wedding, but we did find time to get about 8 or 10 dives in too.
We really enjoyed it ! Just having been in the Caymans in Nov/Dec, we thought we would be sorely disappointed, but we weren't at all.
The dive staff at this resort are just awesome. What a great bunch of guys. We really enjoyed diving with them. They were easy going and fun, but yet professional and safe. They took a max. of 12 divers, but I don't know it was ever that full (always people canceling). The boat was big enough it never felt crowded. Except for Sat. it was 1 tank at a time. All the sites were super close. It went out for a 9:00 am dive with certified divers, then another around 10:30 with resort divers and/or students. Then it went again at 1:30 with certified divers. We usually did one dive or the other, leaving the rest of the day for the beach, or sailing, or one of the many other activities included there.
The water was warm and the viz was great. The conditions were ideal and easy. It was nice and calm on the surface, especially in the mornings. I have great memories of the boat skimming out over glass like water, in the brilliant morning sunshine, with Bob Marley playing. We often had just a little bit of a current running enough to make it an easy drift dive. We never had to swim to the boat. They'd always bring it right over to us. Sure, the profiles were a bit short and shallow (30-40 min. and max. 95 feet or so for the deep plane, and usually more like 65 feet) but you know what, it was just nice and easy and super relaxing for beach vacation diving.
As for the sea life, well... we dove with dolphins on our very first dive! There was 3 or 4 of them trying to get into a trap that had a live eel in it (poor thing). The dolphins kept rolling the cage around, and they'd look at us like... "you have thumbs, open the damn thing will you?" They let us get to just our of arms reach. That's a first for me. We saw dolphins in the water in Maui but they took off in a flash. These ones stuck around, unworried about our presence. Later in the dive we saw more (or maybe the same ones?) It was incredible. Unfortunately, first dive and we didn't get a chance to stick our cameras in our housings! Figures!!!
We missed the dives with shark sightings, and one of the instructors 'petting' a nurse shark under a ledge. Otherwise we saw a couple of turtles now and then, a few smaller rays, lobster, crab, the odd eel.... lots of fish, but mostly smaller. Really big fish were the only thing we saw in the Caymans that we didn't see here. We did one dive with a little cave and short shoot/chimney thingie, but no lengthy/mostly enclosed swim-throughs. ( I really hated all the Cayman swim throughs - not MY thing). We found the reefs to be in good shape. We went snorkeling with non-divers in our group and saw even more life. Decent snorkeling for non-divers.
All in all I still wouldn't say it's the most fabulous location for a dive vacation, and divers looking for a hard core dive trip would be disappointed. But it still beats a lot of places, (like cold, murky home), and is really nice tied in with one of the best places around for a beach vacation.
Couples Swept Away is a gorgeous resort, on a fabulous beach, with delicious food, loads of inclusions, and some of the nicest, friendliest people you ever want to meet. The service was impeccable. I highly recommend this resort.
This was our second trip to Jamaica and our first time to Negril. The first time we were in Montego Bay and did some diving there. Now, as you can gather, this trip was primarily about our wedding, but we did find time to get about 8 or 10 dives in too.
We really enjoyed it ! Just having been in the Caymans in Nov/Dec, we thought we would be sorely disappointed, but we weren't at all.
The dive staff at this resort are just awesome. What a great bunch of guys. We really enjoyed diving with them. They were easy going and fun, but yet professional and safe. They took a max. of 12 divers, but I don't know it was ever that full (always people canceling). The boat was big enough it never felt crowded. Except for Sat. it was 1 tank at a time. All the sites were super close. It went out for a 9:00 am dive with certified divers, then another around 10:30 with resort divers and/or students. Then it went again at 1:30 with certified divers. We usually did one dive or the other, leaving the rest of the day for the beach, or sailing, or one of the many other activities included there.
The water was warm and the viz was great. The conditions were ideal and easy. It was nice and calm on the surface, especially in the mornings. I have great memories of the boat skimming out over glass like water, in the brilliant morning sunshine, with Bob Marley playing. We often had just a little bit of a current running enough to make it an easy drift dive. We never had to swim to the boat. They'd always bring it right over to us. Sure, the profiles were a bit short and shallow (30-40 min. and max. 95 feet or so for the deep plane, and usually more like 65 feet) but you know what, it was just nice and easy and super relaxing for beach vacation diving.
As for the sea life, well... we dove with dolphins on our very first dive! There was 3 or 4 of them trying to get into a trap that had a live eel in it (poor thing). The dolphins kept rolling the cage around, and they'd look at us like... "you have thumbs, open the damn thing will you?" They let us get to just our of arms reach. That's a first for me. We saw dolphins in the water in Maui but they took off in a flash. These ones stuck around, unworried about our presence. Later in the dive we saw more (or maybe the same ones?) It was incredible. Unfortunately, first dive and we didn't get a chance to stick our cameras in our housings! Figures!!!
We missed the dives with shark sightings, and one of the instructors 'petting' a nurse shark under a ledge. Otherwise we saw a couple of turtles now and then, a few smaller rays, lobster, crab, the odd eel.... lots of fish, but mostly smaller. Really big fish were the only thing we saw in the Caymans that we didn't see here. We did one dive with a little cave and short shoot/chimney thingie, but no lengthy/mostly enclosed swim-throughs. ( I really hated all the Cayman swim throughs - not MY thing). We found the reefs to be in good shape. We went snorkeling with non-divers in our group and saw even more life. Decent snorkeling for non-divers.
All in all I still wouldn't say it's the most fabulous location for a dive vacation, and divers looking for a hard core dive trip would be disappointed. But it still beats a lot of places, (like cold, murky home), and is really nice tied in with one of the best places around for a beach vacation.
Couples Swept Away is a gorgeous resort, on a fabulous beach, with delicious food, loads of inclusions, and some of the nicest, friendliest people you ever want to meet. The service was impeccable. I highly recommend this resort.
